Town of Culver Awarded Construction Grant for Walking, Biking Trail

Officials with the Town of Culver recently learned they are the
recipients of a grant that will cover construction costs for the third phase of
the Lake Maxinkuckee Walking and Biking Trail.

Culver Town Manager Jonathan Leist said that project wouldn’t start until the latter part of 2023 or early 2024. INDOT awarded the town the construction phase in the amount of $666,000, but Leist said they’ve changed the way the funds are awarded.

“They award the construction amount first even though that’s what happens last,” explained Leist. “Then, rather than award the engineering amount that we were estimating they are actually going to wait until we have our engineering contract and then award the actual amount of our engineering contract so long as they’ve had a chance to review it and agree that it’s a reasonable fee. We estimate the total project will come in around $1.1 million and that their total award will be around $880,000.”

The town will provide a 20 percent match toward the project
which is anticipated to be around $200,000, but it depends on the final grant
award amount.

The third phase of the project will pick up where the first
phase ended. The first phase runs
through the Culver-Union Township Park from Washington Street to the east end
of the park, through a rail bed, and ends just short of town limits on Academy
Road near the beginning of Culver Academy’s campus.

“We’ll pick up there on the north end near Academy Road and head east along Academy Road and then north as it turns north and then again following when it gets to State Road 10 going to the east until we run out of money. We anticipate it will be close to the intersection with State Road 117.”

Leist said the long-term goal would be to connect this trail
to a network that would link the county together to provide a safe trail for
everyone to use.